On May 18th, the St. Rita Shrine Chapel was filled to capacity to witness the 107th Annual Commencement Exercises of St. Rita of Cascia High School. Fr. Tom McCarthy, O.S.A, ‘83, presided over the Baccalaureate Mass, which was concelebrated with Fr. Bernard Danber, O.S.A, ’68; Fr. Rich Young, O.S.A, ’82; Fr. Bill McFarlane, O.S.A, Honorary Alum and Fr. Bolivar Molina.Highlights of the ceremony included the presentation of multiple awards and honors to the graduates and the heartfelt and moving addresses made by Valedictorian Tony Signorelli, Most Holy Redeemer parish in Evergreen Park and Salutatorian Trevor Jestadt, St. Joseph’s parish in Summit.Tony and Trevor reminisced about their time at St. Rita while challenging their fellow graduates to embrace the challenges this next phase of their lives will present them.

The Class of 2014 has thus far received $ 15,353,771 in college scholarships, a huge accomplishment and testimony to their hard work.This translates to $ 101,000 per graduating senior in college scholarships.Members of this class will matriculate to such colleges and universities as Arizona State, Ball State, Creighton, Illinois Wesleyan, Indiana, Marquette, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska Lincoln, Dayton and Syracuse.

Included in the graduating class were the following:

Fifty-seven members of the National Honor Society

Twenty-six Presidential Award Winners

Seventeen Illinois State Scholars

Twenty-eight members of the Gold Honor Roll

Forty-four members of the Silver Honor Roll

A highlight of every St. Rita commencement exercise is the recognition paid to the “Tradition Which Shapes the Future”, a special ceremony whereby graduating seniors are recognized with their Fathers and / or Grandfathers who graduated from St. Rita or Mendel Catholic before them.This year, there were twenty-four seniors who were recognized with their St. Rita-graduate fathers and four seniors who were recognized with their Men of Mendel fathers as second-generation Ritamen.Four St. Rita graduates were recognized with their fathers and grandfathers as third generation Ritamen while two St. Rita graduates were recognized as fourth generation Ritamen.In addition, thirty-nine St. Rita graduates had brothers who graduated from St. Rita before them.“Tradition Never Graduates” is more than just a tag line at St. Rita.